> Eliot Spitzer
> AKA Eliot Laurence Spitzer
>
> Born: 10-Jun-1959
> Birthplace: Bronx, NY
>
> Gender: Male
> Religion: Jewish
> Race or Ethnicity: White
> Sexual orientation: Straight
> Occupation: Government, Attorney
> Party Affiliation: Democratic
>
> Nationality: United States
> Executive summary:GovernorofNewYork
>
> Eliot Spitzer's father is an Austrian emigrant and a self-made real estate
> magnate. As a boy, he attended private schools, and then he went on to
> Princeton and Harvard, before joining a successful law firm. He stayed for
> only two years, then took a job working for Manhattan District Attorney
> Robert M. Morgenthau. Spitzer spent six years as Assistant DA, investigating
> and prosecuting organized crime. In 1992, Spitzer's work toppled the Gambino
> Crime Family's control of Manhattan's trucking and garment businesses. Then
> he quit, and went to work for another law firm. In 1994 he ran for Attorney
> General, and lost. In 1998, he ran again and narrowly won. His father
> underwrote his candidacies to the tune of about $9 million.
>
> In early 2002, an aide in Spitzer's office showed him a stack of internal
> emails from Merrill Lynch, where company executives blithely acknowledged
> that they had downgraded stock from a company, not because there was
> anything wrong with the stock, but because that company didn't do business
> with Merrill Lynch. Spitzer's office opened an investigation that showed
> that Merrill Lynch was systematically doctoring its "advice" to investors,
> to shore up the stock giant's investment arms and to kick companies that
> didn't play ball. The settlement cost Merrill Lynch $100 million, and its
> reputation.
>
> Spitzer then led a multi-state effort to investigate and prosecute other
> investment brokers and bankers. Those fines and penalties totaled about $1.4
> billion. It sounds like a job for the federal government's Securities and
> Exchange Commission, but the SEC was sound asleep, and Wall Street is inNewYork, which made it Spitzer's jurisdiction, too. The SEC "missed what was
> obvious", he said. "They should have know about this before I did."
>
> In November 2002, Spitzer was invited to speak at the Institutional Investor
> Dinner, an annual awards event for the very sort of stock and investment
> schmoozers he'd been going after. He accepted the invitation, and from the
> podium basically called these people on their shit:
>
> These are the Institutional Investor Awards, and thus reflect criteria
> important to institutional investors, who prize analysts' accessibility,
> their insights and their ability to uncover a valuable piece of information
> about a company or sector, and their access to management. What these awards
> do not measure is the performance of analysts' buy, sell and hold
> recommendations. I am not here to question those criteria used by
> institutional investors or to challenge their application. But since my
> focus has been on protecting individual investors, I want to call attention
> to the industry's use of these awards, which is in need of reform.
> Although tonight's all-stars are named by and for institutional investors,
> the brokerage houses tout these awards to the investing public together with
> the analysts' stock recommendations. The message being broadcast to
> individual investors by linking the awards to stock picking is deceptively
> simple: follow the "smart" or "professional" institutional money and act on
> these recommendations. That message is simply deceptive.
>
> It implies that tonight's awards measure the performance of the buy, sell
> and hold recommendations offered. In fact, tonight's awards do no such
> thing. Those in attendance tonight already know this. But the investing
> public is not aware that the awards don't reflect the performance of your
> stock recommendations..."
>
> The conflicts of interest Spitzer uncovered in the stock market were no
> secret in the industry, or to reporters who cover the industry. These were
> standard-issue conflicts of interest that had existed for decades, but
> Spitzer came at them with a ferocity that stunned the business world.
> Spitzer sees himself as a stalwart defender of capitalism -- rooting out the
> guilty, so that people will know businesses are on the up-and-up. Confidence
> in the stock market, or any business, is increased, not diminished, argues
> Spitzer, by seeing crooked businessmen hauled away in handcuffs. Spitzer
> blasts the notion of laissez faire economics, that free markets will correct
> most bad business practices by making those companies that are guilty of bad
> behavior less profitable. "They've said that intervention by [...]
> government is wrong but they haven't taken into account that markets can
> have structural flaws."
>
> Environmental polluters are one of Spitzer's favorite examples: They're
> rarely punished by the market, and under George W. Bush, rarely punished by
> regulators -- which means that society at large pays the price for
> pollution. Spitzer has demanded that the federal Environmental Protection
> Agency turn over files of 50 power plants EPA had investigated, but never
> prosecuted. He wants to prosecute the power plants for violations of the
> Clean Air Act if they're guilty. Not surprisingly, there are few fans of
> Spitzer in leadership positions at the EPA.
>
> Spitzer led a coalition of 41 states in a price-fixing lawsuit against the
> five largest music companies and three largest music retailers. The
> companies settled, coughing up $143.1 million.
>
> Spitzer sent chills down the spines of anti-abortion activists when he
> subpoenaed several "crisis pregnancy centers" -- clinics that offer
> anti-abortion counseling to pregnant women. Spitzer suggested that these
> projects may have violated the law by "misrepresenting the services they
> provide" and "diagnosing and advising persons on medical options" without a
> license.
>
> Spitzer has gone after Wal-Mart, for selling toy guns virtually
> indistinguishable from real guns, which puts kids at risk of being shot by
> police officers. He's gone after WorldCom's former head Bernard Ebbers and
> four other telecom muckety-mucks on fraud charges. He's gone after drug
> giants GlaxoSmithKline and Pharmacia for price-fixing. He's uncovered
> crookedness in mutual funds markets.
>
> In 2004, Spitzer pronounced thatNewYorklaw does not allow same-sex
> couples to marry inNewYork, but said the state should recognize same-sex
> marriages legally performed elsewhere. He also said the law may be "flawed",
> and said he personally thinks gay couples should have the equal right to
> marry.
>
> Spitzer has been criticized, deservedly, for not requiring a straightforward
> apology from Merrill Lynch. That may sound like nitpicking, but when
> companies publicly "admit no wrongdoing", it makes it harder for investors
> and customers to successfully sue. The whopping fines he's collected, even
> $100 million at a crack, amount to chump change for companies as huge as
> Merrill Lynch.
>
> Spitzer has also lost plenty of cases, even high-profile prosecutions: "If
> you succeed all the time, you're probably picking battles that are too
> easy." In 2006 he ran forGovernorofNewYork, winning in a landslide with
> about 69%% of the vote.
>
> Father: Bernard Spitzer (real estate developer)
> Mother: Anne Spitzer (literature teacher, Marymount Manhattan College)
> Wife: Silda A. Wall (charity executive, Children for Children)
> Daughter: (b. 1990)
> Daughter: (b. 1992)
> Daughter: (b. 1994)
>
> High School: Horace Mann School, Riverdale, NY (1977)
> University: Princeton University (1981)
> Law School: Harvard Law School (1984)
>
> GovernorofNewYork(2007-)
> Attorney General ofNewYork(1999-2007)
> Law Clerk for Robert W. Sweet
> Skadden, Arps Associate (1982-94)
> Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison Associate
> Friends of Hillary
> John Kerry for President
> NewLeadership for America PAC
> World Technology Network
>
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